Home · IGCSE 0625 · Motion, forces, energy · Energy stores and transfers · Practice
Practice questions · Energy stores and transfers

Follow the energy.

Six original Cambridge-style questions on naming stores and transfers, the conservation of energy, tracking transfers through everyday examples, and using the right language.

Original questions All questions on this page are original work, written in the Cambridge IGCSE style. They are not from past papers. They test the same concepts and skills the syllabus rewards.
The language that scores

Transferred, never created or destroyed.

01
[2 marks]

State the principle of conservation of energy.

  • Energy cannot be created or destroyed. ✓
  • It can only be transferred from one store to another; the total stays constant. ✓
02
Analysis
[2 marks]

A ball falls freely from a height. State the main energy store it starts with and the store this is transferred to as it falls.

  • It starts with gravitational potential energy. ✓
  • As it falls this is transferred to the kinetic store. ✓
03
Analysis
[2 marks]

Name four different ways in which energy can be transferred.

  • Mechanically (by a force doing work). ✓
  • Electrically (by a current). ✓
  • By heating. ✓
  • By waves (light, sound, radiation). ✓
04
Analysis
[3 marks]

A child slides down a playground slide at a steady speed and notices the slide feels warm afterwards. Describe the energy transfers taking place.

  • Gravitational potential energy decreases as the child descends. ✓
  • At steady speed, the kinetic store stays roughly constant. ✓
  • The energy is transferred to the thermal store of the slide and child by friction; total energy is conserved. ✓
05
Analysis
[2 marks]

A swinging pendulum gradually slows down and eventually stops. Explain what happens to its energy, making clear that energy is still conserved.

  • Air resistance transfers energy to the thermal store of the surroundings. ✓
  • The energy is not destroyed; the total energy is still conserved, just spread into a less useful store. ✓
06
Analysis
[2 marks]

State the useful energy transfers that take place in a battery-powered torch when it is switched on.

  • The chemical store of the battery is transferred electrically. ✓
  • The bulb transfers this to light (by waves), with some to the thermal store. ✓